This is a very speculative-y fiction about a confounding community somewhere... ? We know it’s a small town, pretty isolated, near some mountains, with fairly predictable weather. (Think cloudy and wet-ish?) They know they are “othered” in that something happens to mothers in the town. No one can predict when–it could be months or it could be years- but at some point, the mothers will simply vanish into the clouds. It’s an affliction that they’ve dealt with for as long as they can remember. As hard as they’ve tried to predict why or when it will happen– did they love their children too much? Not enough? Is the blurred image in a photograph a sign? – No one seems to have the answers.

We meet Vera as a young girl, and see her go through adolescence, marriage, and eventually motherhood. She’s desperate to know when the affliction will come for her. When she starts feeling what she thinks are symptoms, she finally takes action to try to prevent her inevitable disappearance.

This was a thought-provoking story with lots of room for speculation. As a mom, I certainly thought about the lengths I’d go to to protect myself and my children from harm or trauma. If you’re looking for solid answers, it’s one I’d suggest skipping, but if you love a speculative fiction that’s immersive, atmospheric, and well-written, definitely check this one out! Thanks to Celadon Books and NetGalley for an ARC.

Eerie and lovely, a thoughtful and affecting meditation on motherhood, its sacrifices, and intergenerational relationships among women. A feminist dystopia that echoes our own world in discomfiting ways.

For readers who have devoured Margaret Atwood's work, Elsewhere is the next course! Centered on the experience of motherhood and set against the reality of an "affliction", this novel rhymes with contemporary America in ways both big and small. Readers looking to lose themselves in a work of fiction will find much to love here. I found the work unsettling and haunting in the very best ways - this is a book that will carve out a niche in your brain and not let go. I highly recommend this sophomore outing, particularly for book clubs!

Alexis Schaitkin's Elsehwere is an eerie, feminist dystopia taking place in a cloud-covered village in the mountains where an "affliction" resides that causes mothers to mysteriously disappear. The residents of the village don't know why this happens, but solemnly accept these disappearances as the possible outcome for experiencing the beauty of motherhood.

Vera lives in a tight community where some mothers mysteriously disappear overnight. One day a stranger from elsewhere shows up and shakes things up. They send the stranger away, but that interaction changes her. Years into the future, it’s Vera’s turn to be a mother, and she wonders if she will disappear at some point too, at the same time she wonders how are things elsewhere. I love how the story is portrayed, it capturares the nuances of motherhood like no other.

I’ve read that this dystopian novel has been compared to Margaret Atwood’s novels. I found it to be a fair comparison, set in a town isolated from elsewhere where mothers suffer from an affliction that takes them away from their children. I thought it was well written, making me think about motherhood and how mothers may act if they knew there was a possibility they could disappear at any time. Would it change the motherhood experience? Would mothers look for signs that were or weren’t there.
I would have liked to have read this as a part of a book club because there are so many discussion points to unpack. All in all, it was an enjoyable reading experience that I though was very insightful about many observations of motherhood.
Thank you #Netgalley and #Celadon for early access to this book in exchange for my honest review.

Vera lives in a remote mountain town that is cloud covered and damp almost all of the time. In this community mothers suddenly disappear. As Vera grows up to become a mother herself she worries if she will suddenly vanish like her mother did.

I’m not sure how to review this one well. I thought the writing was beautiful and I loved the themes of motherhood. It was a speculative fiction which I don’t read often. I don’t think this book was for me maybe. It was honestly kind of weird😬 I liked how it all tied together in the end but there was not an explanation for most things.

Reviews have been mostly good so I say if you like dystopian books give it a try for yourself.

Thanks to @celadonbooks for an arc for an honest review.

Wow! I loved this book! The world building was fascinating...and slightly terrifying. Vera lives in a small mountain town, set in a world similar to the real world, but a few changes....like how mothers sometimes vanish into thin air. When Vera becomes a new mother, she is fearful that she, too, may vanish, and she deeply loves her daughter. She decides to come up with a plan, and it involves "elsewhere". Well written, kept me glued to the book!

"Elsewhere" is a fascinating puzzle of a book that kept me riveted to its pages with its mysterious and almost taunting plot and the compelling narrative in the voice of the main character, Vera. The writing is smooth and absorbing in its style and delivery. Although the cause of the affliction remained a mystery to me, not knowing all the full backstory of the town and its residents, I was wowed! This slow burn of a story of Vera becoming a mother and all that meant to her was utterly engrossing.

Then, too, there were the truths women face when they become mothers. One is never totally prepared for what motherhood entails, and even the most experienced still have moments of doubt and lapses in confidence. I thought the way the village responded to the mothers who disappeared, desperately trying to pinpoint why each was gone, was shocking and perfect in the story. As mentioned in the book’s synopsis, aspects such as the traditions and the position of the mothers in the village society did remind me of Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

The village itself is idyllic, but the grove, the jungle on the outskirts, and the mountains were atmospheric and frightening, as were the clouds that crept in every evening, obscuring the familiar and hiding everything and everyone under a moisture-laden blanket of white. As I read, I felt like the physical village was breathing down my neck.

With its moody setting, compelling narrative, and unsettling underlying mystery, I recommend ELSEWHERE for readers who like speculative fiction and have enjoyed works such as “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson or “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood in the past.

I will admit that I struggled to get into and I’m not confident that I really understand this book throughout reading it. I don’t know if the symbolism just went way over my head or that it was so buried in the text that I got exhausted digging for it. This affliction that affects some mothers, but not others was perplexing to me and I had trouble digesting it.

I did understand the fear that the young women live with as they grow, get married, and become mothers. What is the definition of a perfect mother? Is that what a woman must be in order to not disappear? I am a mother, and far from perfect. I also grapple with mom guilt on a daily basis, but I also believe I am raising good children to become good people & good members of society in general.

Perhaps it is a commentary on motherhood as a whole. The second-guessing, the guilt, the depression, the exhaustion all while having to maintain a perfect veneer for those outside of us who always want to weigh in with their opinions.

Elsewhere is a hauntingly beautiful story of home, motherhood, and duty. I am in love with the rich details of the town and community where Vera is from. The book feels like a complete story to me yet I revel in the smaller incomplete memories that form Vera’s life. My senses carried me through the pages: the dampness of the air that grew moss on every surface; the richness of a broth in a new city; the smell in the air that told a woman who had never been to the coast that she was nearing the ocean; the fierceness that made a mother run rather than disappear so that she could would still be alive to continue the act of loving her daughter. I would only recommend this book if you can appreciate not having all the answers (I love this because it’s more like life — we don’t always get all the answers). This book is a work of art.

I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Vera was born and grew up on a secluded town on the side of a mountain . She thought of it as "home", and it had no other name. It had everything the town's people needed to live happily. Whatever else they might need came from elsewhere by way of Mr. Phillips, the only person who came and went on a regular schedule. Strangers very rarely visited.
One of the way Vera's town differed from elsewhere was what they called the affliction. Every now and then, with no rhyme or reason, a mother would vanish. Vera's mother was one who vanished. The event happened so often, there was a whole ritual surrounding it. The other mothers would examine the vanished's life to see if they could determine why she vanished.
Vera grew up, married and became a mother. She started to feel that she might vanish herself. She decided to run away instead. Once beyond the confines of her hometown, she found a very different world. The rest of the book is about Vera and the new world. How does she fare in this world, so alien from where she grew up? Does she ever return to her home?
The book moves slowly. This is not a bad thing here. There are things, ideas, that cannot be rushed. We don't get to understand the affliction. The people don't understand it themselves. It just is, and we are shown that most women who are gone vanish. Few do as Vera does and run away. I liked the pacing of the story. We get just enough information to keep us guessing as we read along Vera's life.
I received the copy of the book I read for this review from the publisher.

I went into this with zero expectations, and found myself pleasantly surprised by the reflections it led me to about motherhood!

In particular, we follow the story of Vera, whose life in a small mountain town is built around the disappearance of mothers in the town. It is completely normal that a family wakes up one morning to find their mother, gone.

We follow Vera losing her own mother, through to her journey to motherhood, and beyond. Ultimately, I think this is such an interesting, unique approach to starting a discussion about the way we can lose ourselves in motherhood and the way women are viewed in society.

I haven't read anything quite like this, but think The Power by Naomi Alderman has similar roots.

Haunting. Hypnotic. Mysterious. Unsettling.

Nestled within the mountains is an isolated town where mothers disappear. Suddenly, seemingly without warning, those with the “affliction” vanish without a trace. After each disappearance, the town’s people perform a ceremony that erases the existence of the vanished. Questions always follow: why was this mother chosen? Was she too overbearing? Too neglectful? Did she love her child too fiercely? No one could predict who would go next.

Vera is the narrator whose own mother vanished when she was young. She now has her own daughter and is terrified of leaving her daughter motherless.

There is something about this book that I just can’t shake. A feeling that won’t let go. It has surrounded me, not unlike the clouds of Vera’s mountain town. The writing is sparse and purposeful, vivid and lyrical.

This book is about motherhood (and childhood): the pressures put upon women to become mothers, how quick we are to judge other mothers, how we question every single decision we make for our children, how easy it is to lose ourselves in the raising of children. As a mother, I felt this book deeply. The story closes with a lot of unanswered questions, which makes it a great one for discussion.

If you are a fan of dystopian and/or speculative fiction, give this one a try! It likely won’t be for everyone, but it is absolutely worth the read. It is one that will stick with me for a long time.

Happy belated Pub Day (a day late) to Elsewhere!

It’s an eery coincidence that this book is publishing right now, based on everything that is currently going on the America… that being said, this is a dystopian novel that seems like a lot in current times.

Elsewhere centers around a town where girls grow up to become wives then mothers, however the mothers in the town will eventually just up and disappear.

To be completely honest, I feel like this book was beyond me. It is definitely the type of book I can see quite a bit of people really enjoying, however for me I felt like a lot of the details were lost.

I also feel like the book could have been split into more chapters (there were only 5 parts - some very long to read). As someone who needs to finish a chapter before they put a book down, I felt like I was reading at some points just so that I could finish my chapter and be done reading for the night.

That being said, even though this one wasn’t for me, I would still recommend to read it! If you are in to dystopian novels and complex plot lines, this is the one for you!

Thank you @celadonbooks and @netgalley for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review.

It’s tough to describe this book without giving away its many secrets. While short, it’s very impactful, serving as an intriguing work of speculative fiction and an allegory for motherhood.

We follow the main character, Vera, as she grows up in her sheltered mountain town where strangers rarely visit and the townsfolk never choose to leave. The women of this town have an “affliction.” Mothers sometimes disappear without a trace—one moment there, the next gone. The town gathers after a mother is found “gone” to dispose of their belongings as if they never existed, but they ruminate on what caused their disappearances. There’s no pattern to the affliction, but the town always seems to find a reason. Perhaps one mother loved her child too fiercely, another was too careless. As Vera grows up and becomes a mother herself, she’s terrified of making choices that bring the affliction upon her.

Vera’s story takes a few abrupt turns that left me confused initially, but the story comes full circle in the end quite nicely. We’re left with a few unanswered questions in the end, but that’s part of what makes the story so eerie and interesting. Buried under the cult-like setting is a powerful message about women losing themselves in motherhood, about judging themselves and facing the judgements of others while raising their children and about the double-edged sword the ”collective” of motherhood can be.

The writing was beautiful and I found that I couldn’t put this one down.

I’ve always loved dystopian, it takes you to a completely different world every time. Elsewhere did take me elsewhere, and I flip-topped between a three and four star rating, so I’ve landed around a 3.5. It didn’t take long to get into the place the author created, but at times I was left with SO MANY QUESTIONS! I was hoping they were answered at some point and they were, but for a while I wasn’t sure. I made plenty of faces and expressions at my kindle, wondering what in the world these people could be thinking. However, I feel like the last quarter of the book specifically really wraps up all the loose ends and answers most of the questions. It started dawning on me then what was really going on in Elsewhere. I enjoyed this book and wished I had more time to read it this past week. I would recommend it and would also read this author again!

What a weird story. I honestly don't know how this was even thought of. I had to read the whole story because I had a feeling there was something more to it.
This story is basically about small town USA and how they can keep beliefs no matter how insane they might be.

Plot: 4.5
Characters: 4.5
Writing Style: 5
Cover: 4.5
Enjoyment: 4.5
Buyable/Re-readable?: Yes.

Semi-spoilery aloofness warning -

This book is different and poetically written from the point of view of our main character, Vera. There is a vast amount of vagueness that works nicely, making it feel almost familiar or not at all. Examples being we don't know where it takes place, nor when. Ages aren't given, nor the exact the passage of time and the time-jumps.

I didn’t see a reveal coming until moments before, when the same thing happened to our main character. At one point, I was in doubt as to the true meaning of ‘gone’ in their town up until the very end, however, I then remembered her describing vanishing, so I feel more/fairly confident it did happen as was described most times. The author, the narrator, the story, they never explain what it is, but also hint at similar things in other elsewheres, magical or supernatural type things. I both liked it while also lovingly hating it, because I wanted to know all the things! We're never told why or how, and you have to be okay with that if you're going to enjoy this one. I also appreciated the inclusion of rarely discussed actions, such as flatulence and childbirth (though that was gross and horrifying, tyvm).

It’s been too long since I’ve read a good standalone dystopian novel, so ELSEWHERE came at just the right time. A fantastic tale of a remote and isolated town where women either marry and bear children, or they float off into the clouds.

Told in a very unique manner, this book provided such an interesting and reflective look at not just motherhood, but also girlhood and young womanhood. This book dives deep into the pressures that mothers face with constantly being judged. Whether or not a mother does something exactly right and “by the book”, there’s always someone who will judge and critique and just tear down. Society is under the impression that women, that mothers, owe them perfection, and that’s just simply cruel.

Perpetually damp and clouded, the small town had such a moody quality to it that I loved. Combine that with the writing, which felt very ethereal in parts, and this felt like a fairytale at times. Albeit a harsh and often tough one, but an important one as well.

All told, this beauty is going on my favorites shelf and it’s certainly one I’ll revisit in the future.